WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose less than expected last week, according government data on Thursday that suggested a mild improvement in the labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 367,000, the Labor Department said. The prior week's figure was revised up to show 4,000 more applications than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 370,0000 last week. The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, was unchanged at 375,000. It was the first time since December last year that the four-week average was unchanged.

A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the report and no states had been estimated.

A regime that can force DOD to tell Lockheed that it’s OK not to send out layoff notices and that the regime will use taxpayer dollars to fight off the resulting lawsuits, is a regime that can do anything it wants with unemployment sadistics.

Still expecting really bad unemployment news mid to late October so that, with the shifting of numbers from excel column A to column B, the week or two prior to Nov 6 can be rosy.

15
posted on 10/04/2012 6:27:01 AM PDT
by C210N
("ask not what the candidate can do for you, ask what you can do for the candidate" (Breitbart, 2012))

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